The present invention relates to a method for automatically configuring a parameterizing surface of at least one controller and/or at least one controller of machine tools or production machines, as well as to a data network for connecting machine components in machine tools or production machines.
Manufacturers typically offer machine tools and/or production machines, including robots, in different versions, which can consist of a basic configuration and additional optional components and/or functions. These options are sometimes installed after the machine tool is delivered to a customer. The controller and/or regulator of the machine typically requires additional planning and startup work after the mechanical and electrical installation of the optional components is completed.
Production machines used for the manufacture of different products or production machines using different recipes may have other problems. Different machine components are frequently connected in different configurations and/or optional machine components can be added to a basic machine.
Until now, individual machine components have always been connected with each other in fixed configurations. The individual machine components, such as transducers or motors, input/output units as well as power controllers, were not connected with each other via data lines which would enable exchange of parameters that operate the various machine components. Accordingly, the controller or regulator of a machine was unable to automatically identify the connected machine configuration and/or the connected machine components. For this reason, the parameterizing surfaces for parameterizing the machine components, in particular the controller, have until now always been static, so that a suitable parameterizing surface for parameterizing the machine components had to be manually configured ahead of time for each customer-specific machine option or machine configuration.
It would therefore be desirable and advantageous to provide a method for automatically configuring a parameterizing surface for controlling machine tools or production machines, which obviates prior art shortcomings and can specifically be adapted to an actual machine topology.